Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Bolt Thrower - Warmaster

BOLT THROWER - Warmaster (EARACHE LP 1991)

I have a friend, who’s big
death metal maniac and who keeps saying that “Warmaster” is in his opinion a
complete and perfect death metal album, without even one bad song, one bad riff
or one dull moment. Damn, I have to agree with him, even if it’s not my
favourite Bolt Thrower album. But this album’s biggest strength is that from
start to finish we’re bombarded with excellent riffs, great, powerful drumming
and fantastic, vicious vocals of Karl Willets. All songs are killer, the riffs
and arrangements are so damn nice here… And above everything else Bolt Thrower
has their own style, which on this album has crystallized fully. This style was
only beginning to form on the previous albums, on “Realm of Chaos” there were
songs like “World Eater” and “Eternal War”, which combined the powerful, massive
heaviness and that sort of groovy riffage, even with a small dose of melody.
“Warmaster” brings that all, but multiplied and perfected. At the same time
this album basically leaves behind all the crust or grind influences, which
were a part of Bolt Thrower style on the earlier albums, “In Battle There’s No
Law” especially. In my opinion “Warmaster” is a pure, old school death metal
record, which sounds like the bombers were dropping the bombs over the city or
a squadron of tanks was coming, destroying everything on their way. This is how
the music of Bolt Thrower sounds, according to me.

And of course war is a main
lyrical theme for Bolt Thrower albums. But in case of “Warmaster” it’s more
like a social theme, with rather pessimistic lyrics dealing with the problems
of modern civilisation, technologies that the people are using to erase their
kind, sicknesses of mind, fears, end of the mankind, wars… I suppose that only “Rebirth of Humanity” is
more optimistic saying that “from the wreckage of civilisation, through the
ruins of this world, man shall rise to power and grow in strength once more. But
will man seek to destroy…”, which is also like a warning.

But let’s back to the music.
Bolt Thrower was able to create that very characteristic sound and aura, which
makes them very recognisable and outstanding band. Their music is rather
simple, it’s not super technical and fancy shit, but this is also why it’s more
straight forward, brutal and neck breaking. Their riff style is unique and the
whole is far from being monotonous and one dimensional, with lots of variations
between all songs. There’re some faster tracks like “The Shreds of Sanity” and
“Rebirth of Humanity”, which may still have that very, very slight grind core
influence. And there are slower, massively heavy monoliths like “Profane
Creation” and “Final Revelation”. But the majority of the album is played in
crushing mid paced way. Some traces of melody can also be heard, like in
“Cenotaph”, which surely is the most known song from the whole record. I still
remember that I saw the video for it in MTV’s Headbangers Ball and it was the
first time I heard Bolt Thrower music. Damn, “Cenotaph” is such a strong song
and one, which sums the album perfectly.

The greatest thing about
“Warmaster” and Bolt Thrower is that they put a great care on the powerful
sounding, heavy, beastly riff. Their music is not as technical and complex as
Suffocation’s or Cannibal Corpse’s, it’s actually very straight forward, quite
simple, almost kind of groovy old school death metal, but this is probably why
it’s so easily listenable and why it punches so hard. And it’s memorable,
catchy, which is even more stunning if you consider how heavy and brutal this
record is. I guess the only thing that I don’t like so much about “Warmaster”
is the artwork. I mean it’s OK, but it would fit some gay power fantasy bands
rather than brutal death metal act. It’s nice artwork, but I would rather see
something different here, especially that I also don’t like this logo they
started to use with “Realm of Chaos”. I love the old logo much more!